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Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been arrested in Romania over allegations of sexual aggression.

The brothers were detained on Monday night on charges that date back to between 2012 and 2015.

They were handed a European arrest warrant issued by Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London – and an investigation is pending.

Police officers escort Andrew Tate and his  Tristan to the Court of Appeal in Bucharest, Romania.
Pic: AP
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Police officers escort Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to the Court of Appeal in Bucharest, Romania. Pic: AP

Andrew, 37, and Tristan, 35, deny all allegations against them. Their representatives said they were “fully committed to challenging these accusations with unwavering determination and resolve”.

They both appeared in court flanked by four police officers – two wearing riot gear.

The pair didn’t talk to each other, but had conversations with their respective lawyers.

They are due to appear in the Bucharest Court of Appeal on Tuesday for a decision on whether the warrant should be executed.

A lawyer representing four women who accused Tate of rape and sexual assault said they alerted British police to immediately seek his detention after receiving information last week that he was planning to flee Romania, a statement said.

Matthew Jury, managing partner at McCue Jury and Partners said he welcomed Tate’s arrest “as it has been a significant concern to many that Tate would seek to avoid justice in Romania and abroad”.

He added: “We are grateful to the British authorities for taking our concerns seriously and issuing an arrest warrant.”

The lawyer also urged Piers Morgan, Tucker Carson and others to stop giving Tate a platform “or at least encourage them to properly interrogate him on the allegations”.

“Allowing Tate to spread disinformation about the allegations of criminality he faces, not just in the UK, only helps to support and spread his toxic influence further amongst vulnerable young men and boys, something we should all be seeking to put an end to,” he said.

Read more: Who is Andrew Tate?

The law firm said the four British accusers were the subject of an investigation by Hertfordshire Constabulary.

The Hertfordshire investigation was closed in 2019.

The brothers are facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania, where they live, and had previously been in jail and later under house arrest since they were detained in December 2022.

They were charged alongside two Romanian women who are accused of being part of the alleged organised crime group.

It is alleged all four formed the group in 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania and other countries – including the US and UK.

Tate won an appeal in August 2023 to be released from house arrest as he awaits trial on a date which has yet to be decided.

The brothers were told they were able to travel anywhere within Romania but could not leave the country.

In January, a Romanian court also overturned a decision to seize Tate’s assets, which saw him regain access to his supercars, properties and designer watches.

Prosecutors said in January last year that they had seized 15 luxury vehicles and more than 10 properties and homes belonging to the suspects to prevent the assets from being sold or hidden.

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From January 2023: Andrew Tate’s cars confiscated from villa

Fourteen designer watches, two ingots – blocks of usually precious metal – and cash, were also confiscated, with authorities saying at the time the seized property was worth €3.6m (£3.12m).

Tate, a former kickboxer and Big Brother contestant, gained millions of fans on social media in recent years after styling himself as the “king of toxic masculinity”.

He has 8.9 million followers on X, formerly Twitter, but has been banned on several other platforms including TikTok for his misogynistic views.

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

More on Cop29

Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

Read more:
No 10 indicates Netanyahu would be arrested
‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike

US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

More on Russia

General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

Read more from Sky News:
What are storm shadow missiles?
How bionic limps are helping Ukrainian troops

Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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